Kyburz hypothesizes that Japanese culture does not have the same conceptual fracture between nature and culture as the West. Showing that "magic" is a mode of perception and cognition that participates and bridges various existential categories that differ by degree rather than essence, Kyburz finds that magic links the cosmos through ritual and stands as the interface between the human and the environment, the material and the spiritual. According to Kyburz, magic is a parallel mode to natural science that is already built into the epistemological schemes of the Japanese people.